Because of the abundant amount of experimental hops breeders work with, they are simply numbered. Naming each of the 10 or 15,000 new hops would be like naming each and every “swimmer”—there’s a reason you only name the baby.
Later that year, Perrault patented and trademarked the numbered strain under its new name, Citra. Of course, it’s wildly popular among American craft brewers and Widmer just released this gold-medal-winning beer as part of their new Rotator IPA series, sticking with the name X-114 IPA.
Famously, the first bottled beer that Citra showed up in—a canvas for this high-alpha hop that Sierra Nevada’s Bill Manley described as “Simcoe on steroids”—was Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA. Of course, their usage didn’t stop there. Citra is also featured in Sierra Nevada’s new imperial IPA, Hoptimum, along with a proprietary variety Grossman said goes by “363,” and added it will “definitely” become a named hop.
With names that often sound like Zoolander “looks”—Magnum, Hercules, Taurus—the botanist behind them can cull from inspiration wherever it washes over them.
Dr. Henning would like to see Newport be his legacy. Bred as a replacement for Galena, it boasts higher alphas and betas, higher yields and is resistant to downy and powdery mildew, which means less spraying. He named Newport after the coastal Oregon town where he loves to surf. Serendipitously, that’s where Rogue Brewing is located so he approached brewmaster John Maier about hopping with Newport. Maier called it “one of the most beautiful hops on the vine, but it doesn’t have much aromatic quality.” Rogue planted it in their own 40-acre farm and it shows up in a few beers including a wet hop ale, but otherwise it trudges along as a tool to reach desired International Bitterness Units, since it’s all about the IBUs.
“Unfortunately,” lamented Henning of his would-be legacy, “it hasn’t taken off.” Once a hop debuts, name and all, that’s no guarantee it will become highly coveted, or that it will even survive.
Up in the Yakima Valley where Perrault works, not far from Simcoe Road, there exists the Satus Pass. Perrault said his Satus hop went into commercial scale production, but yield and disease issues killed it. And Casey recalled brewing a patch on Widmer’s pilot system where the hop lent the beer “Grape Kool-Aid flavor—not very attractive. That beer didn’t go anywhere.”
